New Wiki for Dajuroka

Well I think I have finally found a wiki that I can do some work with. PMWiki seems just what I need. Anyhow will play with it for a while and see what it can do. Feel free to have a wonder - early days yet. Its not a collaborative site but that might happen when I know more about what I am doing.

The other sites are coming along and just need heaps of content.

How many hours in a day? Not enough!

Life really is a terrible joke isn't it.

Web Sites in Disarray

All I can say is my sites are in a bit of disarray at present. I am struggling to learn ASP.NET 2.0 as well as MySQL and PHP in between creating characters in EverquestII. What a web I weave.

Anyhow I am hopeful I can get enough knowledge to start the sites up again but I am not confident of how the databases will link.

Had a terrible day yesterday trying to get a new hard drive to work - was plugged into a raid IDE socket so no go but how was I to know!!!

Anyhow a good friend saved the day and a bit of replugging and away another formatting went!!

Refurbishments

Have had another go at simplifying the front page of Dajuroka.com as well as cleaning up Where To Start Today and they do look better. My Google ranks for my index pages are there now so I am happy:
1/10/04 Dajuorka = 5 out of 10
1/10/04 Where To Start Today = 4 out of 10

Not bad for a beginning site. I wish I could get some of my deeper pages to be indexed. It is really frustrating as I can't search Google for what I know is there. Oh well one day.

Dajuroka Snr hit 50 this month so things are getting serious. Should one waste time on websites when time is so precious. Oh well beats watching TV.

We visited Tangalooma last weekend and enjoyed it no end. Sailed a Catamaran, putted around in a motorised dinghy (must buy a boat), fed some dolphins (bloody cold but neat), watched John Howard win another election. (Well it doesn't pay to punch taxi drivers if you want to be Prime Minister!)

Anyhow I am going to do some work on the directories in Dajuroka and try and improve their usefulness. Get rid of dead wood and make them add more value to their use.

Updates to Dajuroka and WhereToStartToday

Well today saw a major rewrite of Dajuroka.com. Having now got Where To Start Today.com up and running to a reasonable state - some 76 authors and a few basic reviews - I thought I needed to consider how the two sites can work together as well as the related Blogs. Books at Dajuroka my newest blog will focus on literature only while this one will look more at how things are going in the world of quality links. I intend to really slash many of the sites at Dajuroka.com to improve its value. I suppose that may help focus my work in the Open Directory because lately I have been frustrated at not be able to add much value.

I am really pis*ed off at the The Open Encyclopaedia but that may simply be my current mood. Depresion is like that, it justs sneaks up on you - especially if your not sleeping.

Anyhow we shall see how things develop. Back soon!

Upgrades and Amazon

Today did a major upgrade of Dajuroka. Committed to Amazon books in USA but now have to think about Canada and UK suppliers. Big and a long term task. Will end up being a family job I think. Open Encyclopaedia is still going along and I like the potential links I will be able to build.

2004 and New Things To Do!

Well it's a new year and I have been very remiss in updating what has been happening around Dajuroka.com.

Ahhh ... nothing much. Had a burst of enthusiasm and started a fascinating exercise in starting to track knowledge and its creation from the singularity onwards. BUT as always time is finite and work and family do demand 99% of it especially now we have a new Government in high efficiency mode!

Anyhow, the other big impact has been getting involved with the Open Encyclopaedia Project. THIS IS GREAT!

I am now developing the whole of the Australian regional area and as well have got a lot to do with Health Informatics. Who knows where this will go but I am giving it my best shot.

The ODP is still going along but it is difficult to get to work in a wider area and the difference in intellectual involvement is massively different.

All the little Dajurokas continue to grow and as today is Valentines Day I must get up to bed early tonight!

The Dajuroka.com Story

Well we have started to revamp Dajuroka.com. It became quite apparent that we were going no where - have a look at my post inside Open Directory!

" Since 1999 I have been steadily adding URL's to my little website (www.dajuroka.com) and reached the heady total of 5000! Along the way I had developed a classification system and gained great experience in managing a database where all the sites were maintained and checked before being made into passive HTML and posted courtesy of many versions of Frontpage.
This was my passion. Finally a hobby to take me into my twilight years. Something to pass on to my children. Contentment!
BUT
Then I found this strange site ...DMOZ ... what could this be. NO I CRIED IN ANGUISH they have millions of sites, thousands of workers (paid nothing) and I am falling behind by thousands of URLs every day. They have a classification system for everything and they give it away (if you can download it!). OH THE PAIN!
I wanted my own mini-Yahoo! It wasn't fair. I would never get the call from Redmond. Never get the takeover offer for millions! What would I do now on my empty nights and weekends. What was the point of scouring net magazines, google and 200 other search sites for URLs when they were snaffled up by this ODP thingy! They even added descriptions! How could I compete? OH THE PAIN ........ but then......
The Gods (or something called a Staff or Editall or somesuch) smiled down on my pitiful efforts and said "Well done. Leave your work and come along with as at ODP. Join us, join the collective mind of the web. We need your help (under a few minor conditions in small print ... oh and you no longer can have 500 categories but you can learn to do one well!)
AND I DID.
And now I am active again.... I am again spending my nights searching for my little category, my wife and kids no longer have to see me after dinner, I can see others in the distance working like me, I can see the little family domestic fights over this category and that, I can waste hours reading forums which add so much to my life (no more alt.erotic.anythinggoes newsgroups), I see the anguish of others trying to decide classification terms, I can feel the whips and soothing caress of the gentle editor guides. I am at peace...... well sort of.
But now I have a neglected web site, I still pitifully rip bits out of newspapers with interesting URLs only to find them already known to the ODP Gods. I can't bear to turn my site off but I don't know what to do with it. Maybe I should start rating the ODP listings (damn Google does that), maybe I should pick a specialist area (but ODP has them all covered).
WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A DEAD DIRECTORY SITE ..... after all it is your fault! (All suggestions appreciated)"

Anyhow many suggestions later I have deceided to start adding content and connections to the knowledge of the human race. Where else to start than with a singularity. Mind you it was Bill Bryson's book that got me going!

Anyhow its going to be a ride ... lets see how I go.

I will keep the old links until I am certain they are in the Open Directory then we shall see where we go from there.

Hey hope you've got your Christmas Tree up!